Saturday, 13 July 2013

The data of the National Electoral Council (CNE) is very curious indeed. The data from the Venezuelan National Institute of Statistics (INE) is also curious but above all it is funny. Sometimes things do not add up. If you put them together, you have weird, senseless data.

We know a census is about approximation. You just have a (more or less) educated guess.

One of the things that you see right away is the amount of very young people who were not registered to vote. We can speculate about this "decalage" but I don't want to get into that here.

I want you to look further at the columns representing voters and estimated inhabitants after the 40 year of age. I produced that chart by using the data of voters for 2010 and comparing that with the 2011 census, which was based more or less on data from 2010. It seems the amount of voters for each age range (5 years for INE) is at least 6% higher than for the INE statistics beginning with the range of those 40 years old and older.

And that's why I write "denn die Toten reiten wählen schnell": they used to ride, now they vote.

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Why did Nicolás Maduro replace Molero Bellavia with the Barinas politician Carmen Teresa Meléndez Rivas as minister of Defence? Chávez had appointed Molero to that position less than 7 months ago and he had appointed Meléndez to the post of secretary of state.

What does Athena tell you?

Why is Molero now ambassador to Brazil? Does that have anything to do with Mario Silva's leak?

What has happened to the trail of Arné Chacón, the brother of Jesse Chacón, current minister of "the Popular Power for Energy Production"? Billionaire and former military Arné Chacón was in prison from 2009 after Chávez himself complained he had become rich in no time. Arné Chacón was freed on the last day of 2012 but there has been no discussion about whether he will stand trial or what.

Will Jesse Chacón step down as minister in 3 weeks? He declared some time ago he would step down if he can't solve the energy crisis until then.

Do you think Snowden will be able and willing to relocate to Venezuela?

Monday, 1 July 2013

The Russian pro-government newspaper Izvestia tells us a bit about the visit of Maduro to Russia. He just arrived in Moscow in a Cuban plane. The publication says Maduro might try to see how to take Snowden to Venezuela. Maduro will surely discuss this with Putin.

A guy from the Russian State University for the Humanities, Mikhail Beljat, said that once Ecuador started to behave so cautious about Snowden, Venezuela has become "his only option" in Latin America. I would not be so sure but I am sure Maduro will try anything to get him, just to bug the US Americans. Maduro acts exclusively on gut feeling - or what Cubans or his wife tell him to do.

Maduro will also inaugurate a street called after Chávez. We reported already that Igor Sechin, when visiting Venezuela for some business a few weeks earlier, called the Moscow major in order to ask them to get a street named after the deceased autocrat. I suppose that was the price to speed up the signing of some oil or weapons' contract.

The Izvestia article also mentioned an anecdote about the late caudillo: one day, while on a visit in Moscow, he decided out of the blue to see the memorial Battle of Stalingrad and so the next day he flew to Volgograd, something Russians didn't expect. This is the way the Venezuelan officials - military men and former "revolutionaries", act.

Chávez wanted to see this, so he got himself and the whole court flown to Volgograd, former Stalingrad. What will Maduro want to do?

Minister of "Justice" on socialism, his tie and his shoesHere an English article explaining the whole thing for those who do not speak Spanish. I wonder if Italian communist ministers also wear that kind of clothes.